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Vital Football Legend
Simon Sadler: Two Years On
on Sunday 30th of May 2021, with a record-breaking sixth Play-Off Final victory, our club, Blackpool Football Club, was promoted back to The Championship.
At a Fans' Forum in early July of 2019, just three weeks after having purchased the Club, I was asked what I thought about our chances of promotion to The Championship. I replied that we’d get there “hopefully in two years and I’ll be gutted if we don’t do it in three”. In the following weeks and months as we began the rebuild of our club, that statement took on the characteristics of a millstone or an albatross. The task at hand was significantly more substantial than I’d envisaged and the Club clearly needed rebuilding from top to bottom. By March 2020, however, we had the bones of a new structure in place throughout the Club and in Neil Critchley had just appointed a young, talented and hungry Head Coach. With the Covid pandemic spreading and the nation under lockdown, Neil and the recruitment team worked tirelessly to assemble a competitive squad. As the pre-season games got underway, we marvelled at the attractive brand of winning football of which this new group seemed capable. Not only were we going to get promoted, we were going to go up automatically, probably as Champions! The Gods of Football, however, seemed to have other ideas and with only seven points from our first nine games of the season, those words of mine uttered in July 2019 were again weighing heavily around my neck.
Whilst of course I was concerned, I never lost faith. There were more than enough positive moments to see that we were on the right track, but it was also increasingly apparent that I’d underestimated just how difficult it was to get out of League One. We hadn’t had much luck in those first nine games or so, as evidenced by our xG, the widely used statistical measure of expected goals, which indicated that we should have been much higher in the table. Nevertheless, I considered all that had happened over the preceding 18 months or so and concluded that a more realistic target would be for this to be the season where we laid the foundations to mount a serious challenge for at least the play-offs in the 2021/22 season. Others with more football experience than I were more confident. Ben Mansford kept drawing parallels with his time as Barnsley Chief Exec five years earlier, when a new, young team started the season similarly poorly yet still got promoted to The Championship via the play-offs. Linton Brown, an ex-pro centre-forward himself (as he likes to remind us), kept telling me that although Jerry hadn’t scored yet he’d bag us 20 goals this season. And Critch maintained a quiet, calm confidence that results would soon improve, as he embraced life as a League One manager.
We can all pick our own turning points but mine was that narrow 1-0 defeat when down to nine men away at Wimbledon on 27th October. The character and resilience we showed that day was remarkable and we were unlucky to leave South West London empty-handed. At the next game, away at Burton Albion, Jerry broke his duck with a brace and we were off. There were stumbles along the way as we showed that we could beat the better teams but often struggled against some of our more dogged opponents. You could increasingly see that the players were fit and that they worked hard. We were hit by more than our fair share of suspensions, injuries and absences through Covid, but we were so well coached and organised that players seamlessly slotted into the team to replace the absent. You could see the confidence and belief grow as the performances improved. At one point automatic promotion looked a possibility but 1-0 defeats in quick succession to Rochdale and Shrewsbury Town put paid to that. In the end we finished third, comfortably in the play-offs with six points to spare.
I spoke to Critch in about late March/early April and I recall saying something along the lines of “please make sure that we reach the play-offs as I want the players to know what it feels like so that if they don’t do it this year, they’re ready for next year”. As he does, Neil calmly assured me that we’d make the play-offs (I think he may’ve been keeping a closer eye on the League One table than he was letting on) and of course, we did. When we knew we were there and that we would face Oxford, I tried not to think too far ahead. I tried not to think of Wembley and I tried to take it one game at a time, like Critch and the boys were doing. Prior to the first leg against Oxford, I’d discussed with the likes of Ben and Brett how it would likely be a close game. I watched the warm-up at the Kassam quite intently and the lads exuded a professional confidence. As we took our seats just before kick-off, I turned to those around me and said, “I think we’ve got this”. After a nervy start, we settled and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. In the return leg, we discussed how the first goal would be vital. In true Blackpool style we then proceeded to turn that theory on its head by conceding said first goal but then quickly recovered to score two in quick succession to put the result of the tie beyond doubt.
The countdown to the final was interminable, but on the day I was the calmest man in Wembley. I’d decided that whatever happened I was going to enjoy the occasion and when my mind tried to play the day forward to the point of victory or defeat, I consciously didn’t let myself go there. Win or lose I was going to celebrate as my expectations had been exceeded. But I always thought we’d win. We had so much momentum behind us and had shown such spirit and character that I thought that with a bit of good fortune it should be our day. When we went a goal behind in the first minute I thought back to a conversation that I’d had with Critch after the second leg of the semi-final where I’d expressed how impressed I was at how we’d responded to going a goal behind on the night and that after five clean sheets in a row in the proceeding matches, that experience may well come in useful. My comments proved to be prescient and the lads didn’t panic. My belief only wobbled once on the day and that was when Lincoln hit the crossbar midway through the first half. I thought that our response to that scare was magnificent and once we’d equalised, there was only ever going to be one winner.
on Sunday 30th of May 2021, with a record-breaking sixth Play-Off Final victory, our club, Blackpool Football Club, was promoted back to The Championship.
At a Fans' Forum in early July of 2019, just three weeks after having purchased the Club, I was asked what I thought about our chances of promotion to The Championship. I replied that we’d get there “hopefully in two years and I’ll be gutted if we don’t do it in three”. In the following weeks and months as we began the rebuild of our club, that statement took on the characteristics of a millstone or an albatross. The task at hand was significantly more substantial than I’d envisaged and the Club clearly needed rebuilding from top to bottom. By March 2020, however, we had the bones of a new structure in place throughout the Club and in Neil Critchley had just appointed a young, talented and hungry Head Coach. With the Covid pandemic spreading and the nation under lockdown, Neil and the recruitment team worked tirelessly to assemble a competitive squad. As the pre-season games got underway, we marvelled at the attractive brand of winning football of which this new group seemed capable. Not only were we going to get promoted, we were going to go up automatically, probably as Champions! The Gods of Football, however, seemed to have other ideas and with only seven points from our first nine games of the season, those words of mine uttered in July 2019 were again weighing heavily around my neck.
Whilst of course I was concerned, I never lost faith. There were more than enough positive moments to see that we were on the right track, but it was also increasingly apparent that I’d underestimated just how difficult it was to get out of League One. We hadn’t had much luck in those first nine games or so, as evidenced by our xG, the widely used statistical measure of expected goals, which indicated that we should have been much higher in the table. Nevertheless, I considered all that had happened over the preceding 18 months or so and concluded that a more realistic target would be for this to be the season where we laid the foundations to mount a serious challenge for at least the play-offs in the 2021/22 season. Others with more football experience than I were more confident. Ben Mansford kept drawing parallels with his time as Barnsley Chief Exec five years earlier, when a new, young team started the season similarly poorly yet still got promoted to The Championship via the play-offs. Linton Brown, an ex-pro centre-forward himself (as he likes to remind us), kept telling me that although Jerry hadn’t scored yet he’d bag us 20 goals this season. And Critch maintained a quiet, calm confidence that results would soon improve, as he embraced life as a League One manager.
We can all pick our own turning points but mine was that narrow 1-0 defeat when down to nine men away at Wimbledon on 27th October. The character and resilience we showed that day was remarkable and we were unlucky to leave South West London empty-handed. At the next game, away at Burton Albion, Jerry broke his duck with a brace and we were off. There were stumbles along the way as we showed that we could beat the better teams but often struggled against some of our more dogged opponents. You could increasingly see that the players were fit and that they worked hard. We were hit by more than our fair share of suspensions, injuries and absences through Covid, but we were so well coached and organised that players seamlessly slotted into the team to replace the absent. You could see the confidence and belief grow as the performances improved. At one point automatic promotion looked a possibility but 1-0 defeats in quick succession to Rochdale and Shrewsbury Town put paid to that. In the end we finished third, comfortably in the play-offs with six points to spare.
I spoke to Critch in about late March/early April and I recall saying something along the lines of “please make sure that we reach the play-offs as I want the players to know what it feels like so that if they don’t do it this year, they’re ready for next year”. As he does, Neil calmly assured me that we’d make the play-offs (I think he may’ve been keeping a closer eye on the League One table than he was letting on) and of course, we did. When we knew we were there and that we would face Oxford, I tried not to think too far ahead. I tried not to think of Wembley and I tried to take it one game at a time, like Critch and the boys were doing. Prior to the first leg against Oxford, I’d discussed with the likes of Ben and Brett how it would likely be a close game. I watched the warm-up at the Kassam quite intently and the lads exuded a professional confidence. As we took our seats just before kick-off, I turned to those around me and said, “I think we’ve got this”. After a nervy start, we settled and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. In the return leg, we discussed how the first goal would be vital. In true Blackpool style we then proceeded to turn that theory on its head by conceding said first goal but then quickly recovered to score two in quick succession to put the result of the tie beyond doubt.
The countdown to the final was interminable, but on the day I was the calmest man in Wembley. I’d decided that whatever happened I was going to enjoy the occasion and when my mind tried to play the day forward to the point of victory or defeat, I consciously didn’t let myself go there. Win or lose I was going to celebrate as my expectations had been exceeded. But I always thought we’d win. We had so much momentum behind us and had shown such spirit and character that I thought that with a bit of good fortune it should be our day. When we went a goal behind in the first minute I thought back to a conversation that I’d had with Critch after the second leg of the semi-final where I’d expressed how impressed I was at how we’d responded to going a goal behind on the night and that after five clean sheets in a row in the proceeding matches, that experience may well come in useful. My comments proved to be prescient and the lads didn’t panic. My belief only wobbled once on the day and that was when Lincoln hit the crossbar midway through the first half. I thought that our response to that scare was magnificent and once we’d equalised, there was only ever going to be one winner.
